The government's newly-published Connecting the UK strategy aims to close the digital divide, capitalise on infrastructure developments such as broadband, and ensure all levels of society get the most from technology.

The strategy, launched at 10 Downing Street last week, emphasises technology's place at the heart of the government?s agenda.

'This report sets out what we think we need to do over the next four to five years to make Britain truly world-class, and make the nation as a whole at ease in an online world, where people can access a whole range of public and private services from any device, anywhere, any time,' trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt told IT industry representatives at the launch.

?At the time of the dot com boom we were struggling to make Britain a leader, but with heroic efforts from the industry and the regulator, we are now seeing an explosion in Britain?s broadband development,? she said.

The government's plan to exploit the infrastructure now in place includes better IT resources for the education of children and adults, a national focus on internet safety, and a challenge to local authorities to win a £10m seed fund to transform the delivery of services in their area.

'The challenge is for local authorities with local partners to see where they can, in effect, join up completely a whole city or county or area,' said Phil Hope, minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

'The bids will represent a quantum leap forward in terms of the kind of relationship the ordinary person in the community will have with the agencies that serve them,' he said.

The government is also planning to develop guidance on broadband content procurement for the public sector, and is asking telecoms regulator Ofcom to include a focus on domestic broadband take-up.

The strategy was written with input from a number of suppliers and industry bodies. Intellect and the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) will continue to work with the government to develop the detailed implementation plan to ensure genuine progress.

'One of the reasons this strategy is really important is it puts a stake in the ground that we can return to after the election,' Intellect director general John Higgins told Computing.

'It shows that the commitment to high-speed connectivity and exploitation of technology is very much back on the agenda,? said Higgins.

'That is important for the industry both because the public sector is a very big customer and as part of a bigger picture of achieving proper knowledge economy with people able to exploit the benefits these technologies give us.'

But the strategy is only one step along the road, says Higgins.

'While we do see this as very important in its own right, we would like to stress it is only a step on the way to us becoming a competitive knowledge-driven economy, and the next five years will see tremendous jostling between countries to maintain and enhance their position in an increasingly competitive world,' he said.

'It won't be enough just to focus on the social implications. We must ensure they knock on to create real economic benefits for the UK.'

The IT industry has a key part to play in ensuring the goals are achieved, says BSG chairman Philip Graf. 'The industry can help set up the processes, act as a clear reality check, and hold the people's feet to the fire - both in government and in the industry itself,' he said.

'There is a high level of interest and enthusiasm across the major suppliers, and our job is to turn that into real delivery.

'One of our first tasks is to work through with government a clear set of timetables for these commitments, and set a process in place which fills in a framework for the aspirations contained in the document, because without that it won?t happen.'

The industry and government representatives who met for the launch of the strategy are to re-convene to assess the progress made and the issues still to be addressed.

What the industry says

Alison Ritchie

BT chief broadband officer

Now we have broadband ubiquity, this is taking the debate away from infrastructure and towards services, in particular government services. It is very important to be looking at things such as the Digital Challenge and getting everyone online, to really ensure the UK is world-leading and includes everyone.

Campbell Cowie

TimeWarner director of public policy, Europe

One area where the UK still faces real challenges is overcoming the barriers between different sections of the supply chain, because they struggle to understand the different business models. The government can help overcome that friction and I hope this strategy will provide the first step in driving different sides of the broadband value chain together to be more co-operative.

Larry Hirst

IBM UK general manager

The biggest barrier to digital inclusion is fear. So it?s about finding an opportunity where employees with IT skills can give back to the community. If we can give our time that is more valuable than money.

Angel Gambino

BBC controller of business development

There are many opportunities to drive transformational services with larger bandwidth, but we also need to recognise that a large proportion of people already have internet-enabled devices in their pockets, and be sure we don?t get too focused on PCs.

Rick Skett

Intel director and country manager, UK and Ireland There has been a realisation in the public sector that the private sector has done this and done it well, and it is about time the public sector took a good look at how IT can solve business problems. For the government to pull together this holistic strategy is the right thing to do. Now we need to harness the collective talent of the industry to execute it.